American Literary Studies

Gregory Corso Papers

The Papers

Stanford has two special collections that contain original manuscripts,
correspondence, and other archival materials related to Gregory
Corso.

Location: Department of Special Collections, Green Library.

Finding Guides: Details are listed below with the specific
collections.

Research Access and Use: Materials in the Department of
Special Collections are non-circulating and must be used in the
Special Collections' Reading Room in the Cecil H. Green Library.
The Reading Room is open 10:00am to 5:00pm Monday through Friday.
Photocopies and photographs can be made of some materials
in the collections. For more information about the collections and
access policies, please contact Special Collections by telephone
at (650) 725-1022, by electronic mail at speccollref@stanford.edu
or by regular mail at the Department of Special Collections, Stanford
University Libraries, Stanford, California 94305-6004.

Career of Gregory Corso (1930 - )

American poet and author, Gregory Corso was born in New York City
in 1930. In and out of jails as a youth, Corso is largely self-taught
through his extensive reading and travel. An influential member
of the Beat generation, Corso is closely associated with Allen Ginsberg,
whom he first met in New York in 1950. His first published poems
appeared in the Harvard Advocate in 1954, followed by his
first book, The Vestal Lady on Brattle and Other Poems (1955).
His 1958 work Gasoline, introduced by Ginsberg, marks the
beginning of his long association with San Francisco's City Lights
Bookstore and the Bay Area in general, which figures prominently
in much of Corso's work. During the late 50s and early 60s Corso
published several other books of poetry, including Bomb (1958),
The Happy Birthday of Death (1960) and Long Live Man (1962).
Such later verse as Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit (1981)
was less well received, but Corso found a new generation of readers
with Mindfield: New and Selected Poems (1989).

Gregory Corso Notebooks and Papers

Size: 1.5 linear ft.

Call Number: M0877

Finding Guide: A printed version is available in
the reading room of the Department of Special Collections. Electronic
versions of this finding guide are also available. If you have Microsoft's
Internet Explorer version 6.0 or higher, click here
to connect to the XML version on the Stanford server; if not, click
here
for the html version on the Online Archives of California server.

Content: The collection contains 20 holograph notebooks and
other manuscripts, dating from the early 1980s into the 1990s. Totaling
approximately 2500 manuscript pages, the papers offer a wealth of
primary source material, indicative of Corso's working process.
Notebooks include random notations, drafts of poetry, drawings,
and collages. Many of the manuscript pages are not identifiable
as part of larger published works and are unpublished. The collection
also includes some books, interviews, photographs, and correspondence
with Allen Ginsberg.

Corso, Gregory. Papers, 1960-1970.

Size: 1 linear ft.

Call Number: M0721

Finding Guide: A printed version is available in
the reading room of the Department of Special Collections. Electronic
versions of this finding guide are also available. If you have Microsoft's
Internet Explorer version 6.0 or higher, click here
to connect to the XML version on the Stanford server; if not, click
here
for the html version on the Online Archives of California server.

Content: Holograph manuscripts of poetry and prose somewhat
fragmentary in nature. Many of the manuscript pages are unidentifiable
as part of larger works. The correspondence includes both professional
and highly personal material.

Bibliography of Corso

Wilson, Robert A. A Bibliography of the Works of Gregory
Corso,1954-1965. (Phoenix Book Shop, 1966)